Hot off the success of Far Cry comes the announcement that developer Crytek is
jumping into a strategic partnership with Electronic Arts:

Chertsey, UK.
– July 23rd, 2004 - Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), the world's leading
interactive entertainment software company, today announced a worldwide
strategic partnership to develop and publish a new game franchise with developer
Crytek GmbH. The agreement builds on Crytek's success with its first title, the
chart-leading first-person shooter, Far Cry, and brings together the creative
talent of Crytek with the publishing expertise and unrivalled reach of
Electronic Arts. The highly regarded German developer will create an exciting
new game franchise for the PC based on original intellectual property. Financial
terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"Bringing original intellectual property to the interactive entertainment market
is a key focus for EA," said Frank Sagnier, vice president, EA Partners Europe.
"EAP's partnership agreement with Crytek is a testament to our commitment to
nurturing creative development and we are delighted to be working with one of
the brightest talents in Europe to create what we believe will be an innovative
gaming experience."

Cevat Yerli, president of Crytek said, "We are looking forward to this
partnership with EA. Our advanced technology and creativity, together with EA's
production support, marketing and sales, means that we have a great opportunity
to bring an original gaming experience to our consumers, as well as grow our
business. We are thrilled to see this development get underway".

Why does UBI soft suck? Of late they poduced prince of persia, far cry, XIII, and beyond good and evil, which have all been recognised as very good games and ones I've derived a great deal of enjoyment from. The last two were original properties that tried to do something different for a change.

Closing Origin or Westwood means nothing. They still have most of the same responsible staff and produce the same games.

CC Generals would have came out no different whether Westwood had its Texas office still open or not.

Generals was made by the same non-westwood (EA LA) team that made Red Alert 2; although there were a few people from Westwood in that group, most did other things (most notably Earth & Beyond, which recieved Motor-City Online-level support from EA).

The main reason everyone hates EA (besides unnecessarily destroying good developing groups) is that they're the largest force behind the "rush a game to release, maybe patch it once or twice, and then forget about it" trend that's infesting PC games now... The only way EA will fund further work on a project is if it culminates in more expansion packs they can sell (*coughs in the Sims direction*), and not for the reason they should (making a good game? not pissing off your game's fanbase for the future?)

as far as big publishers Activision seems to at least commit to quality and releasing Enemy Territory for the hardcore crowd was a nice gesture. Since Hellchick sarted working there they have improved their attitude towards the community for the better.

MS games division is pretty decent. They have a huge QA facility from what I hear and have no problem delaying games past their holiday release dates simply so the game will be up to snuff technically.

Or maybe it has something to do with the closing of Origin and Westwood?

or how about forcing Barking Dog to produce a gold-master for Global Ops when it wasn't even finished in its beta testing yet?...a game that was, on paper, superior in every way to CS except BD (who made what was arguably the best update of pre-1.0 Counter-Strike) was never allowed to follow through on its execution. ...

Or lets not forget Multiplayer Battletech 3025 with 20,000 ACTIVE testers ready to plunk down $10 per motnh only to have EA cancel it on the eve of its release and breaking up one of the most talented and experienced studios working in online games in its day (Kesmai) simply because the management at EA didn't want to have to clear things through the Battletech IP owner (MS).

oh oh oh, and then theres Motor City Online (originally it was titled "Need For Speed Motor City....a game with American muscle cars) which was never originally meant to be a MMOG but some suit at EA.com insisted the time was right so they changed development half way through and came out with a product that was never fully thought out due to time and money constraints brought about by....

"MAJESTIC!!"

Majestic, the money sucking black-hole of game development which everyone connected to the industry praised as being "cutting edge"...."a new paradigm"...."daring" ...etc. Evidently no one convinced consumers of its "greatness" as it went down in flames taking hundreds of jobs (except for upper management of course....they got severance and a transferral) with it.

or how about The Sims? EA showed its "support" for the fans of its record breaking sales game by releasing a nice SDK......for $20. Someone mustve told them that if they tried the same thing with Battlefield they'd have a mutiny so instead of supporting the cost of the SDK ,they did jack shit and let Trauma (DC authors) and DICE produce it on their own dime.

Talk to some of the working stiffs who worked at EA.com during its demise. They'll tell you how wonderful EA is/was

It never cease to amaze me the misconceptions and preconceived notions surrounding this publisher.

Gotta love the bashing. They are the number one gaming company in the world with most sales. I guess people do like them since they sell more than any other company.

They're also very good at what they do.

And if you think im joking just ask Westwood Studios.

It doesent have to say they bought them, its only a matter of time till it happens, first the contracts to make the game then they buy you out. its happened to many others and it will happen again.

I wonder which person(s) at Westwood signed the deal to get bought out by EA? Are they not just as responsible?

It seems to me that in the last number of years EA has invested millions into "innovative" or "different/creative" games. Black and White, The Sims, MotorCity Online, and Majestic to name but a few. Many of these titles bombed. Would you be willing to invest millions more into unknowns? I wouldn't, at least not in the near term.

Every company does shit like this.

You got that right. If I was to boycott every publisher or dev that pissed me off over the last 20 years I would've stopped playing games on PCs long ago.

Yeah every company does thinks like, cancel the next generation Ultima series game.. twice.

But do not despair, the responsible origin and westwood staff now at EA have just released Catwoman and Ultima Online: Samurai Empire. I'm glad to see the same tradition being continued that you would have expected from Origin and Westwood today.

I knew it was just a matter of time before EA got their hands in this pot. So much much for CryTech, might as well start packing your bags CryTech its only a matter of time till they move you all to one of the LA offices then tear your team apart keeping only those they think are needed and sending the rest packing. And if you think im joking just ask Westwood Studios.

Far Cry was a mature rated game, no? EA doesn't make mature rated games... But they recently made an announcement that they are going to start. EA buys CryTek.... COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT! Let the bloody, graphic intensive, FPS, EA games roll in... YES I SAID EA AND BLOODY!